Body, Mind, and Soul

Was super happy to get the first stripe, since it's been six months since I've started.  However, as the black belt was giving my my stripe, he said, "Get me another one of these."  So I apparently I caught his eye, whether from his competition back in April or tonight.  And now I have two stripes.

Bjj is amazing as usual, of course.  I actually got asked to demonstrate twice in class in krav and bjj on Wednesday night.  It's pretty much a huge honor since to be picked, they have to notice you. :)  And you have to be doing things right. 

we worked some gi chokes, but then with the heat and Carlos's love for no gi, we stripped and did some no gi triangle and arm bar set ups.  arm bars confuse me to hell for some reason.  maybe it's because i've hardly ever done them... 

but then we got to roll with everyone.  and not gonna lie, it's becoming way better to roll with people.  even my boyfriend, who's 1.5x my body weight.  we both have more skill now so he uses less strength, allowing me more freedom to do things.  but we both agree that we like gi better, as i've rolled no gi maybe twice before today.

Not only that, but bjj was awesome.  We have a Marco DeLima seminar tomorrow (YESSS) so there wasn't a set plan for this week in class.  Instead, he had our top three belts in class start a sequence of moves, including omoplata initiated in side mount, escaping the omoplata, and then choking from a north south position.  I got to try a whole bunch of different moves as I worked with a brown belt and he likes to show me different tricks he's picked up.  

After class I got to roll with the other brown belt there, and it's really fascinating to me the different styles people develop.  The brown belt I work with usually is called 'Dirty' for a reason, where as the other brown belt rolls more for fun and to keep things constantly flowing.  Though I really appreciate that they stop me periodically to show me things.  I really can't wait to get up to the colored belts so that rolling becomes more fluid and natural the way it is for these guys.  

I also wish there were more girls in the class.  I don't care about the gender too much, but more on the size.  There are two girls who come usually to my class, and I know what they can and cannot do to a point where it's almost not fun anymore.  One puts me in side mount and stays there.  I can't escape hers as easily as anyone else in the world.  The other reason is that I really believe bjj is great for females in a self defense perspective. Maybe I'm biased because I see this in engineering as well, but I'd like to see more equality gender-wise.  Just as a side thought.

Then we practiced more butterfly sweeps like we did on Monday, so good review.  And then spent the last 15 minutes of class just rolling.  And rolled after.  Elbow didn't even hurt at all, which is EXCELLENT.  I'm super happy.

Only two weeks of no rolling and I was dying. My elbow is still sore when holding pads for striking in krav, but during bjj it was an absolute angel. And I got to roll with my favorite brown belt, who showed me some little tricks and really pointed out things I need to work on, like my breathing.

Throughout my life, I keep having people remind me to breathe when exercising. I don't even notice the stopping or catching my breath, but it happens. And now it can be a weakness in competition. So every time I started breathing heavy, he'd stop our rolling and make me take incremental breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth until my heart rate relaxed. I'm glad people keep pointing this out to me, cause I've never noticed it on my own until I'm gasping for air.